Archives and Heritage

Welcome to the online pages of the West Yorkshire Scout County Archive and Heritage unit. There are six of us in the unit and we all come from different places in the County, so a nice spread.

What’s our aim ?

To retain and catalogue the history and heritage of Scouting in West Yorkshire, which would include anything from the original concept of Scouting in Yorkshire in 1908 and includes anything from any group/district and county.

Where are we based ?

We are based in the Jubilee Centre at the West Yorkshire Camp site at Bradley Wood. Within that building we have a number of small displays of items and artefacts spread around, but mainly we have a dedicated secure room to store all WYCS history, which includes any artefacts/records we have acquired from any Scout Group/District/County, which was in danger of being lost or destroyed.

What is in the archives?

We look after (amongst other things) a totally unique Challenge flag presented by the Duke of Connought in 1911, a 1910 Baden-Powell Table, 80 Scout uniforms from 1908 onwards, some on mannequins, numerous trophies, three Scout trek carts, badges, flags from defunct groups, even some sets of cigarette cards from 1910, lots of photographs etc, around 300 old Scout books, and many historical documents. We also have lists of all Scouting items deposited with the Yorkshire Archive Service and we have also started files on Scouting individuals and their memories from the past.

What do we do apart from collect historical records/artefacts

We can do static displays, including mannequins dressed in Scout uniforms and a number of display boards.

How have we helped with the programme ?

We try to be interactive with the present day members of Scouting, we attended the West Yorkshire ‘Big Camp’ provided a display at the Scout County anniversary, we loaned some of our old uniforms to the Otley group for a display to celebrate their 100 years and have been involved in the County Cub Silver link camp which included the Cubs ‘trekking’ to camp with their gear on our three Trek carts, we have created a Cub active ‘Find the answer’ quiz, put on a display for the Jamboree fund raising day, supplied Scouting items for a WW1 display at a local church and had a small display at a local group to celebrate their 75 years in existence.

Preserving the past for the future

We have catalogued almost all the items we look after and we have now started to catalogue our many books with the idea of providing a reference library for all adults in Scouting. This system will sort into author, title, section or subject. We also have an increasing number of West Yorkshire Scouting photographs of more recent years

What do we want from you?

What can we help you with?

We may be able to supply you with some dates or facts, about your group or district, we can tell you what information is stored at the Yorkshire Archive Service, we can contact headquarters archives to make enquiries, we can probably stir your recollections and we can keep your archives/history in a safe environment.

How to contact us

We are open to anyone interested, please contact us using the form below, or send us your pictures or send us your information, Archives at Bradley Wood Scout Camp Site and Activity Centre, Shepherds Thorn Lane, Brighouse, HD6 3TU